– General Electric Co. said on Wednesday it will move its global headquarters to Boston, tapping the city’s technology talent as the industrial conglomerate seeks to emphasize its digital capabilities. It is home to 55 colleges and universities, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a number of tech companies. “MA spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically fluent workforce”.
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Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, began to entertain offers to relocate the company’s corporate headquarters last summer after the legislature of CT obtained more tax hikes equivalent to $1.3 billion, which is the fifth increase since the year 2011.
“The potential impact over those 20 years would be $260 million, a little bit more than 10 times the total tax incentives that we are providing GE at this point”, Barros said.
The bulk of GE’s employees in CT are located outside Fairfield in offices of GE Capital, the lending unit that is being shrunk as the company shifts its focus to manufacturing. The company employs 5,000 people in the state, including the 800 at its headquarters.
GE worked with MA and the City of Boston to structure a package of incentives that provides benefits to the state and city, while also helping to offset the costs of the relocation.
The Boston Globe is reporting that General Electric will announced Thursday its intentions to move its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston.
Employees will move to a temporary location in Boston starting in the summer of 2016, and a full move will be completed in several steps by 2018. However, other Connecticut State Representatives understand GE’s decision. With 800 employees, the Boston headquarters will be about the same size as Fairfield, but its composition will change, GE said. It was not immediately clear how many employees will remain in CT.
“Unfortunately, in this case it wasn’t enough to keep the company”, said Joe Brennan, chief executive of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. It’s refocusing on making things that power the world, move people, purify water, connect cities and, for now at least, fit kitchens. GE’s corporate slogan, “Imagination at Work”, might also apply to the thinking that went into crafting this deal.
Long-time business leader Michael Bloomberg said that “any company that makes a decision as to where they are going to be based on the tax rate is a company that won’t be around very long”.
Boston offered $25 in property tax breaks in the Seaport District, while MA will be on the hook for up to $120 million depending on what site GE chooses. The $130 billion company has been looking at the location of its headquarters for more than three years, according to its statement Wednesday. GE announced in June it was considering a move because CT lawmakers passed controversial business tax increases.
“Our administration welcomes GE’s decision to take advantage of the unique resources that our state has to offer, ranging from our innovative economy to top universities”, Baker said.
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The move “will hurt the state of CT and Fairfield and the surrounding areas a lot more than it will hurt GE”, Sen.
